Anne offered Emma and Dan towels. They had tried to go to Emma’s house, but a downed telephone pole was blocking the alley behind Truesdell. The hail stopped and was replaced by quiet and darkness. Dan turned on his father’s battery-powered radio, and a chirping noise came through as he tuned it to KRLD. It was the emergency broadcast.

“This is a tornado emergency alert for Tarrant, Dallas, and Collin Counties. Residents are advised . . .”

Anne pulled the flashlight from a kitchen drawer and slapped at the old batteries in its stick until a weak ray of light shone. She looked out again through the screen door. The wind had stopped howling, and the sky swirled with weird tinges of yellow, green, and brown. The backyard held enough hail to mistake it for a hockey rink. A strange gray-blue pall settled over the house, almost like an eclipse. The air-raid siren wound up again. All was still as the thunderclouds moiled silently.

When the air-raid siren wound down, there came a new noise. A buzzing. Like a hive of bees. And it got louder, like a freight train far away mounting tracks. Anne, Dan, and Emma heard it and stared at each other. A noiseless fork of lightning flashed, and Anne pressed against the glass patio door, mesmerized by the unnatural light. And in a moment, the stillness was gone and the trees began to tremble. A pool umbrella from the Peñas’ backyard lifted into the air and flew across the Malones’ backyard before slamming down on the patio.

“Get to the bathroom,” Anne commanded. “Go! Everyone in the tub. The pipes are the deepest thing in the ground. Move!”

The freight train churned louder. Anne turned back and saw a branch of the mimosa tree crack and scrape against the gutter, just missing the glass door she had been standing at. Emma and Dan were two steps ahead of her as they made for the bathroom. The wind gathered in a chorus of terrifying wails. The train drew closer, its grinding, swarming howl deafening. Anne squatted in the tub with Emma futilely holding on to the faucet. Dan was yelling something at her. Anne couldn’t hear him as the beams of the house bent and shook with awful wrenching and cracking sounds. The train was tearing in, and Anne couldn’t make out what Dan was saying.

“What?” She drew as close to him as she could, one arm braced against the toilet tank.

“Where’s Dad?”

Dan yelled something else, but it was too late. Anne just shook her head. The pounding force of the wind tore at the house. The freight train was charging past, and they all looked up, waiting for the roof to fly away. Anne closed her eyes and prayed through the deafening roar.